2009 Six Nations Championship Squads - Italy

Italy

Italy's squad for the Six Nations, named on 29 January 2009 by Nick Mallett:

Italy lost both of their specialist Scrum-halves}, Simon Picone and Pietro Travagli, for the entire Six Nations due to injury. Pablo Canavosio was called up but failed to recover from a knee injury in time for Italy's opener. This led head coach Nick Mallett to pull the trigger on a move he had been contemplating even before Canavosio's withdrawal—shifting Mauro Bergamasco from flanker to scrum-half.

After Bergamasco's shocking performance at scrum-half in the opener against England, in which his mistakes directly led to three of England's five tries, Mallett recalled Paul Griffen to play scrum-half and moved Bergamasco back to his normal flanker position. Carlo Del Fava was also brought in as an experienced second row forward. Leonardo Ghiraldini was called up after he recovered from injury but Fabio Ongaro was ruled out, so Franco Sbaraglini was also called up. On 3 March, Mallett added several players to the squad. Coming in were Fabio Staibano, Simone Favaro, Kristopher Burton and Michele Sepe. After returning from his suspension Andrea Masi picked up a back injury, Luciano Orquera was brought into the squad as cover.

Head Coach: Nick Mallett

Player Position Date of Birth (Age) Caps Club/province
Carlo Festuccia Hooker 20 June 1980 45 Racing Métro
Leonardo Ghiraldini Hooker 26 December 1984 16 Calvisano
Fabio Ongaro Hooker 23 September 1977 59 Saracens
Franco Sbaraglini Hooker 3 December 1982 0 Treviso
Martin Castrogiovanni Prop 21 October 1981 54 Leicester Tigers
Carlos Nieto Prop 25 June 1976 31 Gloucester
Salvatore Perugini Prop 6 March 1978 55 Toulouse
Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet Prop 22 October 1978 2 Viadana
Fabio Staibano Prop 20 April 1983 6 Castres
Marco Bortolami Lock 12 June 1980 70 Gloucester
Carlo Del Fava Lock 1 July 1981 33 Ulster
Santiago Dellapè Lock 9 May 1978 52 Toulon
Jean-François Montauriol Lock 21 March 1983 0 Venezia Mestre
Tommaso Reato Lock 12 May 1984 6 Rovigo
Mauro Bergamasco Flanker 1 May 1979 69 Stade Français
Simone Favaro Flanker 7 November 1988 0 Rovigo
Josh Sole Flanker 15 February 1980 33 Viadana
Alessandro Zanni Flanker 31 January 1984 26 Calvisano
Sergio Parisse (c) Number 8 13 September 1983 57 Stade Français
Pablo Canavosio Scrum-half 26 December 1981 22 Viadana
Paul Griffen Scrum-half 26 September 1982 38 Calvisano
Giulio Toniolatti Scrum-half 15 January 1984 1 Capitolina Rome
Kristopher Burton Fly-half 4 August 1980 2 Prato
Luke McLean Fly-half 29 June 1987 3 Calvisano
Luciano Orquera Fly-half 12 October 1981 12 Brive
Mirco Bergamasco Centre 23 February 1983 56 Stade Français
Gonzalo Canale Centre 11 November 1982 42 Clermont
Gonzalo Garcia Centre 18 February 1984 5 Calvisano
Gilberto Pavan Centre 13 October 1986 0 Overmach Parma
Roberto Quartaroli Centre 29 March 1988 0 Overmach Parma
Andrea Bacchetti Wing 4 July 1988 0 Rovigo
Matteo Pratichetti Wing 27 July 1985 12 Calvisano
Kaine Robertson Wing 29 October 1980 35 Viadana
Giulio Rubini Wing 22 April 1987 0 Overmach Parma
Michele Sepe Wing 8 October 1986 2 Capitolina Rome
Andrea Marcato Fullback 13 April 1983 12 Treviso
Andrea Masi Fullback 30 March 1981 44 Biarritz

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